I Do Not Bruise

[farmerjumperdon]

Thought about this a few times over the years, and finally went searching for information. Couldn't find anything more than a couple statements that ease of bruising is coupled to normal variations in capillary structure. (Of course, outside of the severe bruising inherent with some diseases).

That's pretty vague, and not a very satisfactory explanation, because the level at which I seem bruise resistant would appear to require capillaries of Kevlar. I'm going to make a point of bringing it up at my next annual health visit.

So here's the facts:

<> I've had several surgeries (2 knee, 1 neck, 4 or 5 nasal & sinus cavity).
<> I've broken a few bones, and sprained my ankles more times than I can remember.
<> I've been hit hard enough to be knocked unconcious twice, and taken some pretty big impacts to most every body area (from things like moving cars, stationary houses, etc.).
<> And I can't remember the last time I had a bruise. I'm guessing no later than early 20's. (I'm 50 now).

Anybody here with medical background got any insights?

[Doodler]

Bruising might have as much to do with the likelihood of capillary bursting as it does with how widespread they are. My mother's blood vessel walls have been severely weakened due to being compromised by the 22 medications she's been on in the last few years. She bruises from casual contact in some places. Heck, she tends to wear stretch pants and sun dresses because waist bands on regular pants can cause bruising when she sits.

Me, I've worked in a steel shop, and aside from some burning, I've seldom come out bruised. I've dropped hundred pound angles on my feet, and while they were sore as heck, no bruising, really.

I wouldn't claim unbreakable status based on lack of tendency to bruise, I'd more willingly believe there's more to the equation than simple capillary rupture. Might be older blood is thicker and more readily able to coagulate than younger blood pumped by a more powerful and more rapidly cycling heart.

[Tog_]

When I was in the 7th grade I sat between two bigger kidfs, both of whom were mean. By the time 8th grade started I had been hit in the upper arms so much that they just didn't bruise anymore. In martial arts training there is something called conditioning, which is basically hitting hard things and getting hit by sticks and such until you no longer bruise from the impacts. When I was my most active in it, I could go shin to shin with another person who was wearing a hard soccer style shin pad and he would bruise while I (with no padding at all) wouldn't even get a sore spot. When I did get a bruise it was really bad, but they went away very quickly.

[tofu]

Same here. I was once hit in the eye with a tennis ball and actually broke capillaries in my eye, but still didn't get any bruising around the eye.

To be honest, I always just thought it was a guy thing. Seems like many women bruise very easily. I have a video of my ex-wife taken the day she graduated airborne school. She had bruises all over. You could actually see thread patterns from the straps on her shoulders. I was joking with her when I took the video that I needed it as evidence that I hadn't beaten her up. Except for the fact that none of the bruises were on her face it did look like she'd been abused. She said it didn't hurt though.

It's funny because when I went through airborne school I actually cracked a rib on the swing landing trainer and that caused pain for nearly a year afterwards - but still no bruises. Weird huh.

[Tog_]

Ohhh I forgot. Now that I'm a little older and a little softer, my dad has a few rifles that leave their mark on me. Right down to where you can she the seams in the shirt I was wearing when I was dumb enough to shoot them. Again:D

[Nicolas]

My impression is that women and children (male and female) seem to bruise more easily than men. I'm talking about the optical aspect only, no link to pain.

I used to get bruises as a kid, but now things need to be quite bad for me to get a bruise. And of course you see it less clearly when there's a bit of hair on top of it. I also sometimes have a nearly invisible bruise that still can be felt.

[Aerik]

You could give yourself a little test to see just how bruise resistant you are without having a friend hit you with a stick.

There's something I learned growing up called a "froggy." You can do this to yourself or have a friend do it. Curl your hand sort of into a fist, only put your thumb under just your index finger so that the knuckle in its middle sticks way forward. Using a hammer motion or a punching motion, thrust that hard little thing into your upper arm or thigh for about 15 minutes. Take a nap.

When you wake up, sometimes you'll have a hell of a bruise, sometimes nothing.

In any case, just because you can't see them, doesn't mean you don't get bruised. Under specially made UV cameras, you can take photos of a person's body that expose lots of bruising you couldn't see with the naked eye. I wouldn't recommend actually going to a forensics or medical lab and getting this done, though - I'm sure it's hella expensive. Also, bruises often show up post-mortem. I know it sounds like I'm just rattling off lines from CSI, but it's all true and I already knew it.

[Trebuchet]

Unlike most of those who've posted, I seem to bruise very easily. I frequently notice when I'm in the shower that I have a bruise or two which I have no recollection of receiving. Bumps that apparently didn't hurt enough to think about left its mark.

There's a spot on my right thigh that ought to be a good test of the conditioning theory. Just at the height of the protruding corner of the dresser next to the bathroom door....

[farmerjumperdon]

Very good then; I'm not a freak.

[Doodler]

Very good then; I'm not a freak.

No, but I'm sure there's a clinical term for someone who throws themselves out of a perfectly good aircraft. ;)

[Van Rijn]

Unlike most of those who've posted, I seem to bruise very easily. I frequently notice when I'm in the shower that I have a bruise or two which I have no recollection of receiving. Bumps that apparently didn't hurt enough to think about left its mark.

There's a spot on my right thigh that ought to be a good test of the conditioning theory. Just at the height of the protruding corner of the dresser next to the bathroom door....

Do you have fair skin? That makes the bruises more obvious. While I don't get black and blue bruises that easily, it doesn't take much yard work before I end up with red welts or hairline scratches, and usually I never feel them.

[collegeguy]

When I was in the 7th grade I sat between two bigger kidfs, both of whom were mean. By the time 8th grade started I had been hit in the upper arms so much that they just didn't bruise anymore. In martial arts training there is something called conditioning, which is basically hitting hard things and getting hit by sticks and such until you no longer bruise from the impacts. When I was my most active in it, I could go shin to shin with another person who was wearing a hard soccer style shin pad and he would bruise while I (with no padding at all) wouldn't even get a sore spot. When I did get a bruise it was really bad, but they went away very quickly.

what martial art did you practice for that kind of contact, muay thai?

[Doodler]

what martial art did you practice for that kind of contact, muay thai?

I think Gong fu uses "conditioning".

[collegeguy]

I think Gong fu uses "conditioning".

yeah, usually that is from the practicioner himself who keeps hitting something hard in order to condition the bones or a certain area, but I've seen practicioners of muay thai who keep kicking each other with their shin bones until one gives up

[Doodler]

Heck, that's still done in more modern forms. Even boxers do it to some extent when they work the bags. Its as much a matter of getting their bodies prepared for the trauma of landing a solid punch and driving all that force along their arm and up into their shoulder as it is working on their specific attack form.

[collegeguy]

Heck, that's still done in more modern forms. Even boxers do it to some extent when they work the bags. Its as much a matter of getting their bodies prepared for the trauma of landing a solid punch and driving all that force along their arm and up into their shoulder as it is working on their specific attack form.

Actually, it's a matter of sparring to get ready for a determined kind of hit, but not necessarily a punch, otherwise you could still get bruised falling in situations like this one:

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1715040

[cjl]

No, but I'm sure there's a clinical term for someone who throws themselves out of a perfectly good aircraft. ;)

If you've ever seen a skydiving airplane, you know they aren't perfectly good aircraft ;)

[Ronald Brak]

Anybody here with medical background got any insights?

Have your eyes tested.

[Nicolas]

Anybody here with medical background got any insights?
When even the slightest bruise hurts terribly on very light touch, and also non-bruised parts hurt a lot on the slightest touch, have a professional look at your index finger.

[farmerjumperdon]

No, but I'm sure there's a clinical term for someone who throws themselves out of a perfectly good aircraft. ;)

You haven't seen the planes we use, have you?

[Doodler]

You haven't seen the planes we use, have you?

Now that's one genuinely twisted notion of "motivation". I love it. :D

[farmerjumperdon]

The biggest risk is the 1st 500'. Above that, you will most likely get a chance to use the chute; assuming you can get out of the plane. Below that, you are better off assuming the position and hoping it doesn't just nose straight in.

Jumpships don't have as bad a record as you might think. Considering their age and use (climb as quickly as possible, then down as quickly as possible, pick up a load, repeat until sunset) the frequency of accidents is not bad - 1 or 2 crashes per year on average.

Still, I like being as close to the door as possible.

[Spock Jenkins]

Might be older blood is thicker and more readily able to coagulate than younger blood pumped by a more powerful and more rapidly cycling heart.

Quite the opposite. People with thin blood show bruises easier. I don't even think "thin" is an accurate description. The blood doesn't clot quick enough and therefore the pooling of liquid blood accumulates under the skin showing a visible bruise. Older people generally don't clot as well as younger people.

I've been on coumadin (anti-coagulant) since 1990 due to a plastic heart valve I had installed. I'll end up with bruises that can look pretty nasty and have no idea where or when I got them.

[Doodler]

The biggest risk is the 1st 500'. Above that, you will most likely get a chance to use the chute; assuming you can get out of the plane. Below that, you are better off assuming the position and hoping it doesn't just nose straight in.

Jumpships don't have as bad a record as you might think. Considering their age and use (climb as quickly as possible, then down as quickly as possible, pick up a load, repeat until sunset) the frequency of accidents is not bad - 1 or 2 crashes per year on average.

Still, I like being as close to the door as possible.

Ah, just a high duty cycle, then.

[mugaliens]

Thought about this a few times over the years, and finally went searching for information. Couldn't find anything more than a couple statements that ease of bruising is coupled to normal variations in capillary structure. (Of course, outside of the severe bruising inherent with some diseases).

The level at which I seem bruise resistant would appear to require capillaries of Kevlar. I'm going to make a point of bringing it up at my next annual health visit.

So here's the facts:

<> I've had several surgeries (2 knee, 1 neck, 4 or 5 nasal & sinus cavity).
<> I've broken a few bones, and sprained my ankles more times than I can remember.
<> I've been hit hard enough to be knocked unconcious twice, and taken some pretty big impacts to most every body area (from things like moving cars, stationary houses, etc.).
<> And I can't remember the last time I had a bruise. I'm guessing no later than early 20's. (I'm 50 now).

Anybody here with medical background got any insights?

No, other than to compare notes.

Other than a bruise on my right hip when I fell off a two-story roof onto concrete pavement.

My problem is that I just don't break bones. I've been in several severe accidents, including racing motocross, highway, and the roofing accident, but to date, the only bone I've ever broken was my collarbone, in a freak accident as a kid. I shattered it. Three weeks later, the radiologist couldn't even tell which of my two collarbones I'd broken, and I looked intently at the x-ray, and I couldn't tell either. I have that x-ray to this day, and neither I nor radiologists can tell that the bone was broken. Some insist it was never broken. That's when I haul out the x-ray taken three weeks prior and their usual comment is "unbelievable."

Since then, I've been bludgeoned to unconsciousness, have fallen to the ground in a parachuting accident (at about 30 mph, near as anyone can tell - failed main and I waited too long to pull the reserve), catapulted off motorcycles exceeding 100 mph (actually, about 137 mph, if anyone's interested), tackled by a football player who outweighs me by 120 pounds (he hated me and just wanted to give me one good wallop - I tackled him next down and he broke his finger... ha-ha!), and I launched myself through a three-foot thick solid stone wall at 500 mph without any damage whatsoever.

Ok, the last is a bit of a stretch, as it was closer to 5 mph, and I'd stumbled on one rock and landed on the other - sore, but no bruise.

I fell down the stairs once, too, catawhumpaplumpclopclumpcatumpfalump...

Other than the one bruise from the two-story drop, nothing.

But when I was eighteen and dating a girl who loved giving hickies, she could definately give me one. I think it was her sheer determination, as she was a very determined girl! I've never bruised on any other occasion, even though I played football for ten years. And just the one broken bone. I did have two hairline fractures (which I don't count), in a pinky toe (I ran into a table at full speed when I was pushed by my brother) and my pinky finger (same thing, except it was a doorway).

By all accounts, I should be dead. Not from my brother, but because of the motorcycle accidents, particularly the one in which my bike hit a tree, literally disentegrating while I was catapulted into a ditch.

I've been rear-ended at high speed, twice, car totally destroyed, the seat broken in four places. I would up with mild whiplash, and the airbag didn't deply because it wasn't a front-end crash. I jumped out of a tree at 25' on a dare when I was a teen, landing in a kind of bump/crash/roll and bounced to my feet. I was in a bicycling accident during the summer of 2006 when I dodged a rapidly turning car (no signal) and slid under another car at around 25 mph (I'm in great shape and cycle very fast, definately keeping up with the traffic). That hurt! Again, some soreness and abrasions, but no broken bones. What does nature make these things out of that I can slam into one car and slide under another at 25 mph and walk away?

Someone's got my backside...

Just yesterday, 40,000 police fired live rounds into me at three feet in rapid succession without any serious injury.

Ok, the last was an outright falsehood designed to catch those who're actually paying attention. Those who're not paying attention will obviously overlook it.

Seriously, though, all I did while growing up is played hard, wrestled with my older brother a lot, drank tons of milk, ate very healthily, and took my daily vitamin. Although I hurt my back in 1992 (pulled ligaments due to slipping and falling on the ice), aside from the broken collarbone in 1976, I've never broken anything, and the rest of the above is entirely true. As an aside, in case anyone is listening, I remain true to my God, my Wife, and my Son, in every way, and continue to love them dearly, as they've stood by my side through many things.

Sorry for the last, but it was important for me to add that, particularly at this time of year - I appreciate your understanding.

I am by no means indestructible! Just either lucky, toughened, or someone's looking out for my better interests.

[mugaliens]

Heck, that's still done in more modern forms. Even boxers do it to some extent when they work the bags. Its as much a matter of getting their bodies prepared for the trauma of landing a solid punch and driving all that force along their arm and up into their shoulder as it is working on their specific attack form.

This comes to extremes with respect to some martial artists, who've trained their bodies over the years to do things (increasing bone density massively by repeated stresses) that no ordinary person would ever able to do.

I never did this intentionally, but I think the rough play of my earlier years combined with all the building blocks of rock-solid bones have played a decided role in my lack of broken bones.

[Dragon Star]

I've had one real bruise, and that was when a trailer from a 4-wheeler (BIG trailer mind you 16ft long and 8 ft wide) full of dirt fell off a block and landed on my pinky toe (I was stuck there for 15 minutes..eventually found a metal pipe and slid the trailer off my foot...barely. The weight of the trailer sank my foot about 3 inches into the ground). Got a bit of a bruise...but that's about it.

My mother is on blood thinner at the moment (to remove the risk of more blood clots), and you can grab her arm and give it a squeeze and she will bruise at times. :neutral:

[farmerjumperdon]

mugaliens, sounds like we have lived somewhat parallel, if not similar lives, if not lifestyles. Maybe that toughening up as a kid is a valid point.

Just about everything you mention I can identify with thru experience.

We could drive a couple youngsters up the wall with our "When I was a kid . . . " war stories.

[Sean Clayden]

Capillary bruising is only shown where the skin/ muscle area is weak. If there is thick or conditionally improved muscle tone, bruising will become less apparent.

If you're going to be bullied, you learn to be thick skinned...........

[Graybeard6]

According to my cardiologist, as one gets older (I'm 72 going on 18) your skin gets thinner. Add to this blood thinners (aspirin & Plavix, in my case) and one bruises VERY easily. I seldom know how I get them, they don't hurt, and go away in a week or so.
As long as I wake up in the morning, I don't care!

[Sean Clayden]

According to my cardiologist, as one gets older (I'm 72 going on 18) your skin gets thinner. Add to this blood thinners (aspirin & Plavix, in my case) and one bruises VERY easily. I seldom know how I get them, they don't hurt, and go away in a week or so.
As long as I wake up in the morning, I don't care!

Theres your answer, weak thin muscle mass...............

[Nicolas]

As long as I wake up in the morning, I don't care!

So that's what's it like to grow old. At the moment I'm in the phase "as long as I don't wake up before 10 'o clock, I don't care!"

;)

(hey, don't judge me, it's been quarter past six the whole week already, there is a difference between wishes and reality)

[Tog_]

So that's what's it like to grow old. At the moment I'm in the phase "as long as I don't wake up before 10 'o clock, I don't care!"

;)

(hey, don't judge me, it's been quarter past six the whole week already, there is a difference between wishes and reality)

A quarter past six is when I start cleaning up my stuff to make way for the day people :)